Milestones

MILESTONES

In the Sheffield rain

The tears ran

I was paralysed in the choice:

    Catch the night’s last train,

    Or go back and calm the hysteria

    Back to the woman I knew so well.

On the train with my new found principles,

A heavy heart and an easy conscience

I travelled on to an uncertain morning.

In the September sun

All the beauty of Zion around

God spoke,

“Stop pretending you don’t love her,”  

All I knew when I left her eight years before

Was that God was calling me away

And in my zeal I came.

Now I wept late tears

Pain,healing,

No regrets.

At the end of a brother’s sharp rebuke

I felt the poison dart

Of misplaced love removed.

And however fierce the fury

Of  a now unrequited lover

 I vowed never again to leave the pilgrim way.

Three ages,

Three lovers,

Three goodbyes,

Milestones on a hard road to the Promised Land.

                                                                               WILF2009-11-20